Phillips's basic thesis was that Bush and his ostensible opposition had joined hands simply to ignore
the existence of the leading probl"irrelevant consensus" forged ten to twenty years in the past, and reminiscent overall of the pre-ems threatening US national life, while hiding behind an
1860 tacit understanding of Democrats and Whigs to sweep sectionalism and slavery under the rug.
One result of this conspiracy of the incumbents to ignore the real world was the "unhappy duality
that the United States and Russia are both weakening empires in haphazard retreat from their post-
1945 bipolar dominance." Phillips's conclusion was that while reality might begin to force a changein the "political agenda" by 1990, it was more likely that a shift would occur in 1992 when an
aroused electorate, smarting from decades of decline in standards of living and economic
aspirations, might "hand out surprising political rewards." "Honesty's day is coming," summed up
Phillips, with the clear implication that George Bush would not be a beneficiary of the new day.
Similar themes were developed in the Bonesmen's own Time Magazine towards the end of the
month in coverage entitled "Is Government Dead?," which featured a cover picture of George
Washington shedding a big tear and a blurb warning that "Unwilling to lead, politicians are letting
America slip into paralysis." [fn 21] Inside, the Washington regime was stigmatized as "the can't do
government," with an analysis concluding that "abroad and at home, more and more problems andopportunities are going unmet. Under the shadow of a massive federal defecit that neither political (^)
party is willing to confront, a kind of neurosis of accepted limits has taken hold from one end of
Pennsylvania Avenue to the other." Time discovered that Bush and the Congress were "conspiring
to hide" $96 billion of a $206 billion defecit through various strategems, while the bill for the S&L
bailout had levitated upwards to $300 biBush had offered as economic aide to Poland during his visit there during the summer. Gravellion. Time held up to ridicule the "paltry $115 million"
responsibility for the growing malaise was assigned by Time to Bush: "Leadership is generally left
to the President. Yet George Bush seems to have as much trouble as ever with the 'vision thing.'
Handcuffed by his simplistic 'read my lips' campaign rhetoric against a tax increase as well as by his
cautious personality, Bush too often appears self-satisfied and reactive." Time went on to indictBush for malfeasance or nonfeasance in several areas: "His long-term goals, beyond hoping for a (^)
'kinder, gentler' nation, have been lost in a miasma of public relations stunts. The President's recent
'education summit' with the nation's Governors produced some interesting ideas about national
standards but little about how to pay the costs of helping public schools meet them. His much
trumpeted war on drugsan environmentalist, but the most significant clean-air propos was more an underfinanced skirmish. Bush told voters last year that he isals put forth this year--stringent new (^)
standards on automobile emissions-- were adapted from California's strict limits for the 1990's."
"Abroad, Bush tends to turn Teddy Roosevelt's famous dictum on its head by speaking loudly and
carrying a small stick, " was Time's unkindest cut of all for a president who had placed the racistRough Rider's portrait in the Oval Office, replacing the likeness of "Silent Cal" Coolidge that had (^)
adorned the premises during the Reagan years. It was a barb to make George wince when he read it.
Bush, Baker, and Brady were thus confronted with some clear signals of an ugly mood of
discontent on the part of key establishment financier circles inside their own traditional base. Thesegroups were demanding more austerity, more primitive accumulation against the US population
than George had been able to deliver. A further ingredient in the dangerous dissatisfaction in Wall
Street and environs was that Bush had botched and bungled a US-sponsored coup d'etat against the
Panamanian government loyal to Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. Noriega's survival and continued
defiance of Washington seemed to certify, in the eyes of the ruling financiers, that Bush was indeeda wimp incapable of conducting their international or domestic business. By November, 1989, the
ten-month old Bush regime was drifiting towards the Niagara of serious trouble. It was under these
circumstances that the Bush networks responded with their invasion of Panama.
On October 3, 1989, several officers of the Panamanian Defense Forces under the leadership of